Introduction
Children are governed by hegemonic and resistant discourses in any ideological setting. While children live in their ordinary, everyday life experiences, whether they are positive or negative, their lives demonstrate the complex nature of power relations in the ideological context of society. Two philosophers make strong contributions to discussions on power relations in early childhood: Foucault and Havel. In childhood studies, the work of both these theorists challenges the developmental ideas that are often associated with the singular child entity. Their engagement with complex power relations allows a reconceptualization of the child as a postmodern construct with multiple and fluid subject positions, that are temporally and locally produced within early childhood settings (Tesar 2015).
Who and What Is a Child?
This section introduces complexities and tensions inherent in biologizing childhoods and in the sociology of childhoods. Stainton-Rogers and Stainton-Rogers (1992...
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Tesar, M. (2017). Children’s Power Relations, Resistance, and Subject Positions. In: Peters, M.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-588-4_267
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